Eye Opener: The Halloween edition

By
Ed O'Keefe

Al and Tipper Gore dressed as Beauty and the Beast for Halloween 1995.

Happy Friday! It's Halloween Eve, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will dress up as a rancher. The Agriculture Department will close its annual farmers market season with recipe sharing and an antique cider press demonstration. Young children from a nearby day care center will trick-or-treat through the halls of the Department of Veterans Affairs like they do every year.

Now, with a wink of The Eye to Al Kamen -- and the shenanigans regularly featured in his "In the Loop" column -- let's briefly recall Halloween trouble of year's past:

• The Racist Homeland Security Costume: An Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee was suspended in 2007 for wearing a costume that drew complaints from other workers as racially insensitive. The outfit of dreadlocks, dark makeup and prison stripes was deemed "most original" by top officials at a Halloween party.

• Al and Tipper as 'Beauty and the Beast': A Kamen classic from 1995: "The Walt Disney Co. -- after receiving a request from Vice President Gore and his wife, Tipper -- rushed to produce custom-made 'Beauty and the Beast' costumes for the Gores to wear at their annual Halloween party for the press." (See the photo above.) Disney sent outfits with the Gores' precise measurements to Washington, along with the costume designer and a makeup artist. The Gores never asked for a bill from Disney, but eventually received one for $8,365.

• Tehran, 1979:As Kamen wrote in 2005, "On Nov. 4, 1979, just a few days after Halloween, militant Islamic students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Various parts of the embassy were still decorated with ghosts and goblins and other scary stuff. So when the hostages were taken to a room with decorations, the Iranians asked what this was all about. One hostage explained, apparently closing the culture gap. "You do this to your children?" a confused militant asked.

• More Obama Nominees Announced, Confirmed: The president taps Suresh Kumar to serve as director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service and James P. Lynch to serve as director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The Senate also confirmedRegina M. Benjamin on Thursday to serve as the next surgeon general. Track all of Obama's nominees with The Post's Head Count.

• Federal Protective Service moves out of immigration bureau: The embattled agency, responsible for guarding government buildings, has been transferred from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau to the National Protection and Programs Directorate. It is still part of the Homeland Security Department.

Punctuation aside, how is the Gores being furnished -- at charge, I note -- costumes from Disney troublesome? Considering what was a rush order with rapid delivery, possibly by courier, to Washington from Disney Studios, the price was not at all unreasonable.

Moreover, one does not need to request billing for an order. Had one not arrived in a reasonable amount of time, a request would have been correct, simply to make allegations of favour moot.